During my second year I was part of the Sociëteitscommissie (SK) -roughly translates to building responsibility committee- of my student association Demos. This meant that for one night a week, I was responsible for the building which houses Demos. This meant everything from serving drinks to making sure that crisis are handled properly.

This responsibility did mean that I usually pulled a one-nighter a week. Going through the night to class, and sleeping the evening afterwards. One might deem this kind of stuff crazy, but this committee has been the most valuable personal development I’ve had all throughout my development. The nature of the committee had taught me to be pragmatic, handle stress and pragmatically deal with stressful situations. Furthermore, intoxicated people wanting something they can’t have is remarkably similar to people resisting change and development in both design processes and implementation of products/processes.

My time with this committee of multidisciplinary people has shaped friendships for life, and taught many lessons in close cooperation. Things like aligning interests, giving clear instructions and being clear about managing and curbing intentions. Skills I greatly profit from as a designer, as I am much more in control in a plethora of difficult and stressful situations and get stuff done much more effectively than if I hadn’t been part of this committee.